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In “ Chicago P.D.,” a spinoff from “Chicago Fire” starting up on Wednesday on NBC, Jason Beghe heads an intelligence unit, and Sophia Bush is on his group.

On next thought, perhaps it ought to be a man’s planet.

The feminization of criminal offense displays has been great for television: Between other issues, it manufactured feasible the evolution from “Dragnet” to “Prime Suspect.” But also significantly can, in some cases, be as bad as way too little.

“Killer Females,” a new ABC drama, is a situation in point. In Tuesday’s premiere, the heroine, Molly Parker (Tricia Helfer), a extended-legged Texas Ranger, locks horns with a beautiful Latina murder suspect caught crimson-handed in a tight crimson mini-dress and purple stiletto pumps. (Sofia Vergara of “Modern Family” is a single of the government producers, which could make clear the wardrobe alternatives.)

Hannah Shakespeare, the show’s creator, attempts to provide some “Scandal”-like sizzle to an otherwise quite simple procedural, but the hard work appears compelled, foolish and truly very dreary.

And that accentuates what is correct about “Chicago P.D.,” a spinoff of “Chicago Fire” that begins on Wednesday on NBC. Dick Wolf, the creator of the “Law &amp Order” franchise, is an govt producer of equally, and now Mr. Wolf is rediscovering his muse in the Midwest — and his past. In this present about an intelligence device of the Chicago law enforcement force, Mr. Wolf returns to an early “Law &amp Order” sensibility, with even a hint of “Hill Road Blues,” the place Mr. Wolf minimize his tooth as a tv writer in the mid-1980s.

The prospects are primarily male, there is a lot of action and brutality, and, very best of all, there look to be limits to how much personal angst and back tale melodrama can bedevil the primary people. The leader of the device is Sgt. Hank Voight (Jason Beghe), who was a ruthless, corrupt cop on “Chicago Fire,” and here is only somewhat redeemed, thanks to a transient stint in jail and pull from effectively-linked allies at the top. The display barely explains how he received his badge back again, let alone what drove him to grow to be a cop in the first location.

Voight even now breaks rules and defies authority, even though on this demonstrate, he largely does it to help deserving people. The mantra he provides his troops is “You inform me the fact so I can lie for you.”

Two of his best crew customers are also figures from “Chicago Fire.” Antonio Dawson (Jon Seda), a by-the-ebook police detective, is now on Voight’s very good side, as is yet another detective, Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer).

Voight has a number of girls working cases, notably Erin Lindsay (Sophia Bush), a young previous juvenile delinquent who was rescued by Voight and established straight. In contrast to the heroine of “Women Killers,” who seems to be, on duty and off, like a high-priced Russian escort, Lindsay dresses for the work, not the digital camera.

And one particular of the much better figures is neither young nor gorgeous: The desk sergeant Platt (Amy Morton) is a crabby, a bit venal bully and the kind of odd but partaking character that utilised to be found on “Hill Road Blues.”

There is some archness in “Killer Women” — the opening scene seems to be like a Robert Palmer music video clip from the eighties — but no real humor and still much less suspense. Molly effortlessly solves the criminal offense, with the assist of her sometime lover, performed by Marc Blucas, a strapping Drug Enforcement Administration agent.

And in addition to sex and garments, it’s not obvious what the display is genuinely about — potentially since it is a unusual hybrid of telenovela and procedural. “Killer Women” is loosely influenced by an Argentine drama, “Mujeres Asesinas,” in which each and every episode focuses on a girl who commits murder.

The American edition is significantly tamer, centering the present on a feminine law enforcement officer. This sequence puts the requisite inner demons driving Molly proper upfront: It soon becomes apparent that Molly’s smarmy estranged partner bodily abused her when they had been married.

Feminine characters ended up in no way Mr. Wolf’s robust suit he didn’t incorporate any in the original “Law &amp Order” in 1993, NBC forced him to exchange Dann Florek with S. Epatha Merkerson. His direct detectives on that present were men he solid tall, icily beautiful and relatively joyless females as prosecutors.

But Mr. Wolf tailored to the occasions and casting needs of the community, and now he can rarely be regarded sexist: He created Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) an equal partner on “Law &amp Get: SVU,” and she has outlasted her hard-as-nails sidekick, as properly as every possible professional and personalized ordeal.

In this period, the show’s fifteenth, Benson has barely survived kidnapping and torture at the arms of a psychopath. The present returns to that tale arc on Tuesday, as Olivia endures the humiliation and publish-traumatic stress of his demo. The tale line may possibly be contrived, but Benson’s energy to contain her emotions and keep specialist is nicely performed and very touching.

“Chicago P.D.” is, in numerous approaches, a throwback to an earlier, male-dominated period of criminal offense shows, but it carves out space for sturdy woman people who are good at their positions and taken severely by their colleagues — and the writers. “Killer Women” is a considerably much more fashionable, modern day sequence that showcases one particular of the very first ladies to become a Texas Ranger, nevertheless it dummies the heroine down by dolling her up Aaron Spelling-type.

The two collection are a tiny retro, but only one particular improves on the previous.